Jujutsu kaisen vol 4 by gege Akutami

Itadori and Nanami continue battling Mahito and Junpei. Itadori tries to convince Junpei to stop fighting for Mahito, and to come back and join him at Jujutsu High. He promises Junpei that he will grow as a Jujutsu sorcerer, but Mahito is more interested in trying to get Sukuna to come out of Itadori. Mahito tries to frustrate Itadori and put him in hopeless situations so that Itadori has no choice but to release the demon inside him. Back at Jujutsu High, the tournament is about to get underway, but the two teams of students have nothing but beef with each other. The visiting school of sorcerers don't believe Itadori should be left to live, much less train as a jujutsu sorcerer, and they take their frustrations out on Itadori's peers.

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There are some really powerful moments amongst all the fighting and show-boating in this volume. Itadori has some key moments with Nanami where he questions his role as a weapon to destroy people corrupted by demons. Swagger aside, Itadori shows that he's still a kid, someone that the adults in his life should probably protect instead of place in hopeless situations. These moments of vulnerability make Itadori into a worthwhile protagonist, and really enriches a story that could very easily be just about good guys with powers fighting bad guy demons. The weakness for me in this volume was the squabbles with the high schoolers and the tournament they're going into. Tournaments are often ways to introduce a bunch of characters very quickly, and thus, they are all a little bland and underdeveloped at this time. As the tournament progresses, they will hopefully get defined and have richer backstories, but that meant the end of this volume probably should have been included in volume five instead.

Sara's Rating: 8/10
Suitability Level: Grades 9-12

Reviews of previous volumes in this series: vol 1, vol 2, vol 3

Publisher: VIZ Media
Publication Date: June 2, 2020​
ISBN: 9781974714803 (Paperback)

Tags: Rating: 8/10, Suitability: High School, Manga, Demons, School Life, VIZ Media